Tank Upgrades

Hello, I am confused on several things about the Tank upgrades for both the gunner and the driver. First how much time does the autoloader upgrade cut off for the AP/Sabot and HE shells ? What exactly does the reactive armor do ? What does the maintenance upgrade do and what do it upgrade on ? How does the gunner prox. scan work ? is the gunner incendiary worthless ? Sorry for all the questions just curious on all of these different upgrades and I don't know exactly what the stats on symthic mean all the time.

Autoloader cuts off 20% of the reload time on the main cannon (base reload is 3 seconds for AP and sabot, 4 seconds for HE). Reactive armor increases the threshold for mobility hits (normally 29 for light and 39 for heavy increased to 39 light and 44 heavy). Maintenance increases auto-repair rate by 20% and decreases the time until auto-repair begins by 30%. Gunner proxy detects enemies in the same fashion as other motion sensors within 30 meters. Incendiary is pretty much useless - proxy is better.

Basically, HE shells are useless (high drop, low splash damage, low DPS). AP offers better splash damage and is the only one that can OHK infantry with splash, but sabot has faster speed and therefore less drop, which is good for engaging enemy vehicles at range and is the best for leading targets.

Reactive armor is great for inexperienced tankers because it reduces the prevalence of mobility hits. For more experienced players, reactive becomes more of a compensation for mistakes and unforeseen flanks (often due to poor spawn system) because skilled tankers angle their tanks to reduce damage. A perfect 90 degree angle does the most damage, and sides have different multipliers (from least to most: front, side, rear, top) - this is used to position the tank to take the least damage. They also use large objects for cover. At this point, reactive armor is still somewhat relevant but autoloader becomes more attractive.

Most MBT drivers will use zoom, autoloader or reactive armor, sabot or AP, and HMG. Active protection is pretty much a dominant strategy. You can use smoke if you are very experienced, but it will likely get you killed in a face to face against enemy armor or aircraft - you need cover and coordination for it to work effectively.

Gunners usually use proxy scan and zoom, although thermal is good for spotting mines and other threats if you are coordinating with the driver at the cost of reduced ranged combat accuracy and visibility.

There are other things as well that you will learn through experience. You need to prioritize targets, know when and how to use cover, when to advance, when to retreat, and realize that a tank is meant to take hits, but it is not invincible. Third person helps a lot with situational awareness. Also, don't shoot at anything you can't hit - it gives away your position and pisses off the experienced players. A last tip: go engineer, grab a rep tool and an AT launcher, and be someone's gunner. Rep them when the need it, and gun for them. Your points in the gunner seat will help you unlock things, and repairing is a great team action that makes a huge difference. Teamwork is OP, as it should be.

I hope this helped.

My response to K/D bragging: "It's kinda hard to maintain a high K/D without ammo..." | Top 1% Resupplies PS3 - Proud to be a team player

Also get alot of practice with the tank rooftop MG as it is the same as the one on LAVs and MRAPs so you will often end up using it. for some reason in battlefield games (at least since BC2) the vast majority of players are absolutely terrible at using this weapon and it really hurts their squad.

Ive even watched so called "pro" players missing constantly even when stationary and on PC no less where the turret can turn much faster. an MRAP driver shouldn't be needing to roadkill infantry due to a bad gunner. there really is no excuse to be bad with a weapon that can kill from hundreds of meters away with tapfire and has an excellent sight with zoom.

as the gunner in any vehicle you need to get good at taking out engineers firing from cover and abusing the guns lack of recoil.

don't do what alot of gunners do and blaze away at jets while ignoring the ground. it is mostly a waste of time and will give away the vehicles position and piss off you driver. this is especially the case with lighter jeeps and MRAPs since stealth and flanking are their best tactic so firing hundreds of tracers into the air is not a good idea

Also get alot of practice with the tank rooftop MG as it is the same as the one on LAVs and MRAPs so you will often end up using it. for some reason in battlefield games (at least since BC2) the vast majority of players are absolutely terrible at using this weapon and it really hurts their squad.

Ive even watched so called "pro" players missing constantly even when stationary and on PC no less where the turret can turn much faster. an MRAP driver shouldn't be needing to roadkill infantry due to a bad gunner. there really is no excuse to be bad with a weapon that can kill from hundreds of meters away with tapfire and has an excellent sight with zoom.

I think a large reason as for why this is the case is the very limited vehicle sensitivity options and discrepancy between driver and gunner seat sensitivities (or rather, between the ground vehicle gunner turret and every other vehicle). It's impossible to have any sort of consistency between driver and gunner seats and anyone that isn't a dedicated gunner is more likely to make sure he's comfortable with his driver sens than his gunner sens, or he's gonna set up his sens somewhere in-between (if he even takes the time to set up his vehicle sens at all). Once we get a universal soldier aiming equivalent for vehicles this will likely change.

i don't think you can change sensitivity for vehicle turrets on console. it just moves at a set speed. i think this makes alot more sense for tank turrets. practice makes perfect.

the other day on rogue transmission i killed a sniper in a couple of seconds from the road near B and he was on the top of the tower thing next to E. the tapfire is incredible but so few seem to utilize it

the video is good except the "low damage/ low velocity" part. the MG has 600 velocity (about average for MGs) and 25 max damage. it does have a low min damage of 16.7 but its damage drop off is very low (8m - 125m) so it still does more damage than most infantry weapons.

the major weakness is a firing rate of only 550 rpm. that's why accuracy is needed and a good grasp of bursting at long range/ going full auto at close range.

the video is good except the "low damage/ low velocity" part. the MG has 600 velocity (about average for MGs) and 25 max damage. it does have a low min damage of 16.7 but its damage drop off is very low (8m - 125m) so it still does more damage than most infantry weapons.

the major weakness is a firing rate of only 550 rpm. that's why accuracy is needed and a good grasp of bursting at long range/ going full auto at close range.

Yes, the gunner MG is underrated. Since my friend runs canister shells as his secondary, me being competent with the MG makes him feel a lot more confident pushing flags (prox scan is a game changer there as well). Aside from regular infantry I've also taken out countless jihadists, javelin users, helis, etc.

I think a large reason as for why this is the case is the very limited vehicle sensitivity options and discrepancy between driver and gunner seat sensitivities (or rather, between the ground vehicle gunner turret and every other vehicle). It's impossible to have any sort of consistency between driver and gunner seats and anyone that isn't a dedicated gunner is more likely to make sure he's comfortable with his driver sens than his gunner sens, or he's gonna set up his sens somewhere in-between (if he even takes the time to set up his vehicle sens at all). Once we get a universal soldier aiming equivalent for vehicles this will likely change.

Yes, this is a serious design flaw. It's the same issue that makes TV missiles so hard to aim (try to make a fine adjustment and it goes way off course due to the high sensitivity). Luckily for me my mouse has a DPI switch on it that I can hold down to lower the sensitivity on the fly.

Yes, this is a serious design flaw. It's the same issue that makes TV missiles so hard to aim (try to make a fine adjustment and it goes way off course due to the high sensitivity). Luckily for me my mouse has a DPI switch on it that I can hold down to lower the sensitivity on the fly.

Interesting...Are you referring to the sniper button that is on the side of some mouses? (or is that mice)